


There are Two Jokers in a Deck

by DilynAliceBlake



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Batjokes, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:01:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22782955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DilynAliceBlake/pseuds/DilynAliceBlake
Summary: A letter of your soulmate's name every birthday until it's plain as day on your wrist.Jerome and Jeremiah are not planning to share, same name or no.  Bruce thinks J Valeska is open to interpretation.
Relationships: Jeremiah Valeska/Bruce Wayne, Jerome Valeska/Bruce Wayne
Comments: 5
Kudos: 132





	There are Two Jokers in a Deck

The Valeska twins are born minutes apart, Jeremia quiet and Jerome screaming. It sets the tone for their childhoods quite nicely. Their first birthday everyone coos over the matching B's that appear on their wrists, one left the other right.

When they turn two and get the second letters of their soulnames, matching R's, people start to worry. By the time they turn three and the U's ink their way onto their skin, everyone at the circus knows they'll share a soulmate.

When Jeremiah is old enough to understand, he decides that he doesn't want to share.

"Bruce is mine," he insists. "I'm gonna make sure he never wants you!"

"Not if you don't live to meet him!" Jerome argues, and the fact that that's what their mother walked in to hear sets The Plan.

Jeremiah is going to be good and normal. The opposite of his brother in every way. The better choice. He'll be a decent soulmate, nothing like his violently unhinged little brother. And if they're opposites Bruce won't want them both.

  
Bruce doesn't get a whole name. The first letter shows up just like it should, a stark black J on the wrist of his dominant hand. Then when he turns two there's a space before the second letter, a sharp V. His last letter appears on his eighth birthday, and  _ J Valeska  _ sits nicely, quite unassuming for something that will later cause him so much grief.

Staring a cannon down with a frown painted in blood on his face, Bruce wonders what type of person he is, that his own soulmate would try to kill him. He can't bring the shard of mirror down though. Can't become what Jerome already is.

When he meets Jeremiah his heart races. Here before him is a softer, kinder soulmate. A chance to be normal. The relief he feels has him light headed.

"Which one of us do you have," Jeremiah asks, soft and unsure like he's afraid of the answer.

"You both have my name?"

It isn't ideal, but Bruce admits to himself that he has a dark side. A well of violence and rage lives inside him, a potential match to Jerome. That isn't what he chooses though.

He rolls up his sleeve.

"It's you," he insists. "It's you because I choose you, Jeremiah. I won't let it be him."

"Sometimes," Jeremiah will tell him later, face a mask of white over the grave of his brother, "It isn't what we want, Bruce, but what we need."


End file.
